Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

Fossils and Port Robinson

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Last night, we took a picnic supper to Gore Bay.  It was a warm, breezy evening, unusual for this time of year.  Last week, when I took the children there for lunch one day, we had found a couple of rocks with fossilized bones sticking out of the top, and wanted to go back to take pictures of them.  They are in a place you can only go at low tide,  which is why we had to wait till evening yesterday.  We got there about two hours before low tide.

The boys took off down the trail to the beach as soon as they were done eating, taking a cloth shopping bag with them to hold all the mussels they were planning to collect!  The rest of us followed a little more leisurely.  We were able to find the fossils we had seen the last time without too much trouble–and then found more and more and more!
A lovely paua shell.Baby appreciates rocks, too–salty ones, especially!
Finally we made our way to the south end of Gore Bay, where the boys were diligently hunting.  After walking around a little on the rocks there, we decided to go around into Port Robinson.  This was the only access to the Cheviot area in the early days, 100-130 years ago.  Apparently, they would unload the ships and send the goods up some sort of track to the top of the cliffs.  They say there is no trace of the port left at sea level.

Port Robinson

I’m not sure what this tunnel was all about, but it opens out of the cliff just above the high tide line.  As you can imagine, the boys were pretty excited when their Daddy found it–that is the sort of thing you generally only find in mystery stories!

The tunnel that Daddy discovered in the cliff.


The boys, of course, had to practice their mountain-climbing skills, in addition to gathering a shopping-bag nearly full of mussels (now I have to figure out how to cook them!).On our way back to the van, we stopped for a few minutes to chat with some tourists from Australia, and then got caught in the rain when it started suddenly.  No one minded getting a little wet, though.  Everyone agreed that this was a perfect way to spend an evening.

The largest chiton I have ever seen! They are normally 1/2-1 1/2 inches long; this one was 4-5.

Sea squirt

Long Hike!

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Sunday after church, we decided to take a hike before going home.  We drove south from Kaikoura, along the coast, on our normal route home, but stopped where the highway goes away from the coast into the hills, at Oaro.  After parking the van beside the beach, we took off walking.  Someone had told us about a cliff where there are a lot of fossils, and the boys wanted to find some.  We walked along a trail through lupines in full bloom, first, then crossed the Oaro River. We never got our feet wet!  The river goes through gravel, under a bank several feet high. Then, we walked along the access road between the railroad and the beach.

This boy likes to do what everyone else is not doing–in this case, everyone else was on the road–but not him! The most surprising discovery we made appeared to be a train wreck, from 75-100 years ago.  There was a string of railway carriages pushed over the bank to just above the high-tide line of the beach, and even a steam engine!  We found out a couple of days later that old railway cars used to be pushed over the edge to help stabilize the bank.
The next excitement came when we got to a section of beach where there is a retaining wall for a good ways, and the water comes right up to the base of it.  Most of us walked along the roadway on top, but two adventuresome boys decided to walk along the ledge at the bottom of the retaining wall. Well and good–except it went a lot farther than we ever imagined, and got narrower and narrower!  They had to keep moving to different levels to keep going.  There was no way to get them up over the top–they had to go on or go back!  They made it eventually–but I think this mom probably has a few more gray hairs!
Another boy got down on the ledge after he got to the end of it, and went back to help keep the 3-year-old going, and safe. Brotherly love! While he waited for the boys to come to the end of the ledges, Daddy found a place to sit out of the wind and let baby play with rocks.
The next section was lovely sand that reminded me of Lake Michigan beaches, except that it was dark instead of bright yellow.  So warm to the feet!  After that section, the shore turned rocky again, so we walked on the road again, between tall stands of fennel.

This boy was pretending to hide from the train (long before it showed up!)

Baby rode most of the time on Daddy’s shoulders.We knew the passenger train should be coming through soon, so we were watching out for it.

Here comes the train!The children stood on a small hill to wave at the passengers, and when it had passed we started back for the van. By now, the sun had gone behind the hills and it was getting cold.  The children all armed themselves (against ??) with dried-out fennel stalks and we marched. Daddy got to the van first, with baby, and I straggled in last with the 3-year-old.  We all agreed it had been a wonderful experience, even though we never did figure out which cliff had the fossils.

Dirt!

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We finally got the new raised-bed gardens filled with soil today.  We had been trying to decide, for a month and a half or so, what to fill them with.  A local man had topsoil for sale, but it would have cost nearly a thousand dollars to get that.  We thought about using straight compost, since Gayle can get that cheaply from work, but that wouldn’t be good for growing tomatoes.  There is a pile of rubbish and clay pushed up in the “pear orchard” near our house, so we decided to have a friend who has a Bobcat, a digger, and a big dump truck come today to sift through that pile and get what’s good from it, then fill in with compost.  Apparently, the boys told our landlord’s son we were going to do that, and yesterday morning he came to the house and told me that his dad’s cousin, another farmer here in the area, had a pile of topsoil to get rid of–for nothing!  He took Simon over to show him where it was.  Simon came home saying it might be enough to fill half of one of the two beds, but I just knew that if God had given us that soil it would  be enough for the job.  When our friend arrived this morning, he went and got a load.  Immediately, we knew we had plenty of soil!  He ended up bringing three loads, and smoothing it out, and then he and Gayle went over to where Gayle works and got a load of compost.  Once we get the smoothing out finished, it looks as though we’ll have a couple of lovely garden plots!

Baby watched from the window in front of the computer desk–if he climbs on the shelf under the desk he can easily see out.One bed is right out the kitchen window–see how close the digger was to the window!

Baby loved watching!

The boys are sure enjoying this! I made this boy stay inside or on the porch while the machines were moving around. He didn’t like that very well. He made the best of it though, and used Baby’s lookout spot.

Exciting Birthday!

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Today is my birthday, and I had a wonderful birthday present–my cow calved this morning!  She was nearly a week late, so we’ve been keeping a close eye on her.  Last night she looked like she was very close, so we moved her into a paddock (we had her beside the road) so the calf wouldn’t end up on the road.  When I went out at 6:30 this morning to check on her, it was apparent that she was in labor, but she also had milk fever and couldn’t get up.  Of course, Gayle was at work, so I called our landlord, who knows a lot about cows, and asked him if he would be able to come over and give her some calcium.  He very kindly came over soon, and instead of giving her the oral calcium that I had, he gave her two bags under her skin.  He tried to hit a vein, but missed both times.  It still works, just not quite as fast.  We continued to watch her closely, and around 9:00 I felt inside to see if the calf was in the right position.  It was, and half an hour later the feet started showing.  Around 10:00 she finally stood up!  The feet and nose disappeared back inside, and she took a break for awhile, eating some grass and hay.  By 11:00, though, the calf was born–a healthy little bull.  The children all got to watch.  They had been hoping for that.  They’ve had quite the education–they witnessed the breeding and now the birth.

And here’s a funny:  This is Chestnut’s third calf, and all three have been born on a Thursday.  We’ve had four different goats kid here, and three have kidded on a Thursday.  What are the odds of that happening?

Just born!

Everyone wants to meet the new baby!

Worn out.

This afternoon, the two oldest boys went to help a local man “tail” lambs.  Of course, lambs are born with long tails, but if you leave the tails on, poo builds up on them and then flies lay eggs…. I’ll spare you the details, but it’s kinder to cut off the tails.  At the same time, they notch the ears for identification, and “ring” the males.  This farm has around 2,000 ewes, so there are 3-4,000 lambs.  The farm is in the hills directly east of Cheviot.  We were able to drive the van to the back of the farm where they were working, since we have 4-wheel drive in it.  We were going up and down some mighty steep hills!  I have been looking at those particular hills, and the farm road we went up, since we moved here, wishing I could go up them!  What a day for my wish to come true–my birthday!  The views from the top were awesome.  Snow-capped peaks in one direction; the sea in the other.

Ever since we moved to Cheviot I’ve wanted to go to the top of this hill. The tailing operation.

On the way back down, we stopped on the hill at the base of the cell tower (we were higher than the tower when we were back where they were tailing!). We live at the edge of the worked ground in the middle of the picture–just beyond Cheviot.

View to the north from the cell tower.  You can vaguely see the Kaikoura mountains here; in reality they were quite clear.

Look how steep this hill is!

See the cows along the top of the ridge across the valley?

The road we drove on to get to the back of the farm, viewed from the other side of Cheviot. That’s the road I’ve been eyeing for nearly three years!

Birthday Party

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We had a birthday party last week for the boy who turned nine.  I am not one to plan an elaborate party, so I just invited a few families with boys that my boys like to play with, and they had a fun afternoon together the day after his birthday. The game of choice was apparently Red Rover–I think they played it nearly all afternoon!

They took a break when two boys banged heads.

This boy actually had two parties–we had a friend over the night of his actual birthday, and had pavlova.

Baptism

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Our second son (third child) was baptized this past Sunday!  What a joyous occasion.  We went to a creek several miles north of Kaikoura for it, where there was a pool nearly under the railway bridge.

We arrived before several of the other car-loads of people, so enjoyed the sunny day beside the creek. The boy who was to be baptized acted true to his nature, and played in the cold water while we waited.Meanwhile, our oldest boy discovered a “cave” up under the train bridge, and his daddy helped him climb up into it.

We teased him about living under a bridge now!Suddenly, we heard a whistle–a freight train was going through!

Finally, everyone arrived and one of the brothers shared the passage from the book of Acts about Paul’s baptism.

Then, Gayle had the privilege of baptizing his son.

Just as we finished praying, another train whistle sounded in the distance–the passenger train was coming through!

A constant backdrop to the service was the surf, easily visible on the other side of the highway bridge.

Freezer Inventory

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We had our heifer butchered today, so in anticipation of a freezer full of meat soon (after it is cut up and packaged) I sorted, organized and inventoried all our freezers.  It was amazing to see how empty they are–they were chock full two months ago!  We go through a lot of food here.

This is the most of what is in the freezers (I left out some little things):

Kitchen frig
cooked beef 5 pints
chopped peppers 3 bags
pineapple 3 small bags
mushrooms, fried 7 small bags
celery 3 small bags

Laundry frig freezer
walnuts 2 big bags
beef mince 11 kg
chicken breast 2 pkg
cut-up chicken 3 pkg
goose 1
leg of lamb 1
duck 1
casserole 1

Laundry chest freezer
peas 6 kg
mixed veges 3 kg
pumpkin 6 quarts, cooked
parsnips 3 quarts, cooked
plums 11 gallons
zucchini 17 4-cup bags
sandwich meat 2 pkgs
sausages 11 pkgs
whole chicken 8
goat chunks 10
duck 1

Shed freezer:
pumpkin 3 quarts
zucchini 10 quarts
cow milk 16 bottles
goat milk 16 bottles

This isn’t quite everything; I left out some of the insignificant little things that always litter a freezer.  What a blessing to have such a stash of food on hand!  And, most of it was home-grown.  The peas and mixed veges and sandwich meat, and the celery, mushrooms, and pineapple, came from the supermarket; the cooked beef, beef mince, and sausages came from where Gayle works; otherwise, it was all grown here or foraged locally (the ducks and geese were gifts from hunters here).

Water Fight!

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Spring is here; today is warm!  The big boys are away, working for our landlord (they get to drive tractor!), and the younger boys asked if they could have a water fight.  I am trying to say “yes” more often, when I can, so I told them they could.  They have been having great fun!  Baby is having fun, too; he’s been crawling around the yard going from bucket to bucket and getting himself all wet from the wet grass.  Don’t worry about baby and bucket of water; it’s empty now.

No, this isn’t the water fight, but I thought it was cute. This happened this morning.

Random Photos

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This one turned three! Here he is with the gifts his siblings gave him.

The annual Dead Boring Bike Hike–ready to take off!

I followed the bikers in the van; I never saw the oldest two boys till the end. I passed these two a number of times.

I also passed Esther and her friend a number of times.

The chicks in the house are growing–when they started doing this trick we had to put a screen over their home!

Elijah got the idea to build this house from skewers and modeling clay. James helped out.

And look who can climb up on top of things already!

This one (Mr. Sweetie) found his daddy’s gum boots one afternoon!

Someone gave the chicks a perch, and they like to sleep on it. It’s rather comical–they try to sleep with their head tucked under their wing, but when they fall asleep their head falls down!

Pretty daring!

Muddy boy! Somebody wants to go outside!

Now this is a cheesy grin (literally)!